LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN

(1900 - 1979) British naval commander and statesman, supreme Allied commander in Southeast Asia responsible for the recapture of Burma. Excellent typed D.S., 2pp. 4to., [n.p., n.d.], a fair copy of the Instrument of Surrender as signed by Mountbatten representing the Allies and by Gen. Seishiro Itagaki for the Japanese in which the Japanese unconditionally surrender all military forces in the "Southern Region", executed in Singapore on Sep. 12, 1945. Mountbatten boldly signs at the conclusion in black ink. Fine condition. Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of Southeast Asia Command, came to Singapore to receive the formal surrender of Japanese forces in South East Asia from General Itagaki on behalf of Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi, commander of the Japanese Southern Army Group who had suffered a stroke earlier in the year. A British Military Administration was formed to govern the island until March 1946. Itagaki departed for Japan shortly afterward to face trial and execution as a war criminal.